When a Mountain Home police officer made a traffic stop in late March, he was greeted by the sight of small dogs jumping out of the windows of the vehicle and a woman scurrying around trying to corral them.
The man and woman in the car were arrested after drugs and drug paraphernalia were found and both appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court last week and entered guilty pleas to the charges against them.
Thirty-six-year-old Rocio Pompa and 41-year-old Alejandro Rivera De Jesus were both put on probation for 60 months.
During the traffic stop, Pompa told the officer she had leashes for the dogs, but didn’t know where they were.
She was able to eventually get the dogs back into the vehicle and left the window cracked only slightly to close off the dogs’ escape route.
The MHPD officer told Pompa, who was driving the car, that she had been observed swerving into oncoming traffic, almost causing a collision.
It was also found that she had no insurance on the vehicle and was driving with expired drive-out-tags.
When Pompa was searching her purse for her driver’s license, the officer saw a broken glass pipe inside. Pompa pulled two pipes with residue out of her purse.
Other MHPD officers had come to the scene of the traffic stop and a search of the vehicle was conducted. Four plastic bags were found containing a white crystal like substance. Rocio was also found to have valid out-of-state warrants and an active all-state extradition warrant.
De Jesus said the substance in the plastic bags was MSM — an over-the-counter dietary supplement used most often to treat arthritis — but police strongly suspected it was methamphetamine, not MSM.
The substance, which weighed 5.7 grams, did field-tested positive for methamphetamine.
Both Pompa and De Jesus were taken to jail. Bond for each was set at $5,000.
The two were asked if there was anyone who could come take care of the dogs and they suggested a person, but when officers talked to the man, he refused to get involved.
The vehicle and the dogs were towed. According to the Mountain Home Police Department, the towing company is responsible for animals involved when the human occupants of a vehicle are arrested, and no one can be found to tend to the pets.
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